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Mesa County quickly taps finalist for Human Services post

Mesa County is moving quickly to hire a new head for the Department of Human Services, announcing that interim director Tracey Garchar is the finalist for the job.

The announcement, which was posted Thursday afternoon at the county courthouse, comes just three days after former director Len Stewart’s last day on the job.

County commissioners actually concluded Nov. 10, the same day Garchar was named interim director, that they wanted to hire Garchar for the permanent job, Commissioner Janet Rowland said.

Rowland said the county didn’t advertise or take applications and isn’t required to do so.

She said although commissioners usually like to post the three positions they hire — county administrator, county attorney and Department of Human Services director — in order to get a wide array of applications to choose from, the board didn’t feel that was necessary given Garchar’s experience.

“He’s tried and true. He has a good knowledge of things,” Rowland said, noting Garchar has served as deputy director of the department for the last three years.

The county is required to wait 14 days before it can formally offer the job to Garchar.

Commissioners and Stewart agreed to part ways last week over Stewart’s reluctance to make cuts to the county’s child-welfare program, according to Rowland.